(PRESS RELEASE) -- The Venetian Las Vegas expands Sands ECO360 recycling efforts as the first Las Vegas-based property, and one of the first in the nation, to develop an innovative program to recycle surgical face masks, which are being used by guests and Team Members as part of the resort's Venetian Clean initiatives. As part of this pilot project, in partnership with TerraCycle, the discarded masks are collected on-site at The Venetian Resort and sent to a recycling facility where they are separated, shredded and densified into a crumb-like raw material. This material will be used to make repurposed products such as composite lumber for shipping pallets, railroad ties and composite decking. "Our responsibility to the planet is one of our company's core values," stated George Markantonis, president and COO of The Venetian Resort Las Vegas. "Our Sands ECO360 global sustainability initiative was designed to help minimize our environmental impact, and it reflects our vision as a leader in sustainable resort operations. We continue our journey to a more sustainable future as we seek innovative environmental solutions." "At TerraCycle, our mission has always been to eliminate waste, recycle the unrecyclable and use our innovative business solutions to minimize human impact on the planet," said TerraCycle Founder and CEO Tom Szaky. "It's through partnerships like the one we enjoy with The Venetian Resort that allows us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations." Since re-opening in June, The Venetian Resort began diverting discarded surgical face masks from other waste being sent to landfills, through an industry-leading trash-sorting initiative that takes place on property. In addition to this program, the resort actively sorts its trash, diverting 27 types of items that would otherwise be sent to landfills. Through this program, between 55-60 percent of waste is diverted from local landfills, a number that far surpasses the national average of 32 percent, or the state average of 23 percent. "As a company that has put sustainability in the forefront of our operation, it was important to find a recycling solution for this PPE, to avoid sending them to our landfills," continued Markantonis. This project, part of the company's Sands ECO360 initiative, will help provide "proof of concept" for such recycling, to encourage others to replicate the program. Currently, consumer masks are not recycled through main-stream or curbside recycling programs, due to the complexity of the recycling process. Surgical face masks are made of a multitude of materials, and need to be sorted and separated before recycling. In addition a magnet is used to separate the metal nose strips, which can melted and utilized in other recycled materials. Sustainability at The Venetian Resort Through the Sands ECO360 global sustainability strategy, The Venetian Resort leads the hospitality industry in a movement to actively minimize the environmental impact of its resort operations on our planet. Using a science-based approach, the strategy focuses on areas with the greatest environmental impact and opportunity, each aligned with a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal. Recent highlights include:

• ENERGY: Las Vegas Sands and NV Energy recently signed an agreement to source 100% renewable electricity for The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, through Renewable Energy Credits (RECs), annually taking approximately 225 million kWh "off the grid," or the equivalent of almost 28,000 single-family houses.
• ENERGY: U.S. Department of Energy recognized The Venetian Resort Las Vegas for surpassing a 20 percent energy reduction goal as a partner in the Better Buildings Challenge. In the fall, it was reported that The Venetian had achieved a 24% reduction in energy since the program began.
• FOOD/PROCUREMENT: To better understand its seafood supply chain and increase its percentage of spend on sustainable seafood, the resort has embarked on a multi-year project with FishWise, a seafood sustainability consultant.
• WATER CONSERVATION: With the expansion of its innovative nano-filtration system, the resort is able to purify and reuse non-potable water for irrigation, fountains, and HVAC cooling tower needs. Overall this system replaces 22 million gallons of municipal water each year with non-potable water, allowing the company to reduce its reliance on fresh water. Beginning in August 2019, the property HVAC cooling tower is now using filtered non-municipal water, saving an additional 175 million gallons of water a year.
• WATER CONSERVATION: In 2020, Las Vegas Sands officially launched The Drop by Drop Project, a new collaborative water stewardship initiative that invests in regional resiliency, ecosystem, technology and educational water projects. The initiative will further incentivize conservation while helping protect water supplies and watersheds in each of our regions.
• WASTE: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that The Venetian is a U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champion. As a champion, the resort is joining an exclusive list of American businesses and organizations in a pledge to reduce food waste in our operations by 50 percent before the year 2030.
• DOUBLE HONOR: Las Vegas Sands was once again named to the exclusive Climate Change A-List by CDP, an international nonprofit environmental organization. This is the company's fifth year in a row to attain a leadership position for Climate Change, a distinction shared by only 2% of companies that have active programs to disclose their global sustainability data. In addition, Las Vegas Sands was again named to the exclusive Water Conservation A-List by CDP. Further, we are one of 10 American companies to attain double A-List status. These CDP lists are widely recognized as the gold standard for corporate environmental transparency.

Also, City Commission Zone 2 candidate comments on new medjool palms and Steering Committee members talk about the experience of serving.   Why I support Jeff Brower   Dear Editor:   Citizens of Volusia County will make their voices heard during the August primary. My vote will go to Jeff Brower for Volusia County Chair because he understands environmental problems we are facing and will work to fix them.   He believes in property owner rights but understands rezoning of properties often does not protect our wetlands and overdevelopment comes with many problems. Our drinking water matters and is a priority to Jeff.   A lesser known issue he has been working to find solutions for is commercial composting of biosolids. Biosolids are the sludge left over from wastewater treatment plants. Currently, our biosolids are dumped on land in Central Florida creating problems with toxic run off. He found the Sustainable Generation System as a viable solution for composting biosolids that can safely be turned into a compost for public use.   Jeff understands the environmental problems caused by plastics. His plan is to add more garbage cans to the beach, pursue fines for littering, launch business sponsored Terracycle cigarette butt collection, add water refill stations and implement an educational outreach program to raise awareness.   He wants better transparency and oversight of the Volusia Forever program. Volusia Forever is a great conservation program but can be even greater with strong leadership oversight. I support Volusia Forever being the strongest program possible.   Jeff is a strong supporter of permaculture, which are agricultural systems designed to be sustainable and self-sufficient. He is a member of Volusia Soil and Water. His forward-thinking ideas for our environment are refreshing. We are long overdue for a County Council chair that represents the people.   Suzanne Scheiber   Ormond Beach

Ocean City's four newest benches come with an environmentally friendly origin story.   The three benches located on the Boardwalk and one at Seacrets are made from recycled cigarette butts as part of the Ocean City Green Team's Cigarette Litter Prevention Program created last year.   “Littering cigarette butts and cigar tips is unsightly, costly to clean up, and harmful to waterways and wildlife,” said Green Team chairman and Ocean City Councilmember Tony Deluca in a news release.   A campaign started in 2019 that involved making "butt hutts" available to local businesses willing to pledge their help toward collecting cigarette waste in coordination with the program's mission to encourage businesses, visitors and residents to properly dispose of cigarette butts and cigar tips. The huts were installed in highly trafficked areas with concentrated cigarette waste, according to a town news release. The huts were later emptied by volunteers and interns and sent to recycling company TerraCycle to be turned into plastic that could be manufactured into new benches.   The Cigarette Litter Prevention Program has received funding from the Worcester County Health Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Keep America Beautiful, the country's largest organization aimed at eliminating cigarette litter.   The release shows the Maryland Coastal Bays Program is also working with the resort town to create a sustainable butt hut and recycling program to keep cigarette litter out of waterways.   “It’s through partnerships like the one we enjoy with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program that allow us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky.   Keep America Beautiful provided a $20,000 grant to assist with funding that endeavor along with additional messaging campaigns for residents and visitors.

They look like typical benches, but four newly installed benches in Ocean City are places where you can park your butts on… butts.   The benches are made of recycled cigarette butts.   The Ocean City Green Team Cigarette Litter Prevention Program was created last year to encourage proper disposal of cigarette butts and cigar tips. TerraCycle collected bins of discarded butts and made benches out of them.   Three of the benches are on the Ocean City boardwalk, and one is at Seacrets nightclub.

Getting to sustainable plastics will be a story of cooperation. Cooperation between four groups of stakeholders that are used to working together but have different goals and incentives: plastic resin producers such as SABIC; companies that turn the resin into bottles, containers and other plastic products; consumer brands such as Tupperware; and waste collection organizations.   This chapter of the sustainable plastics story starts with Tupperware. Tupperware storage products have long helped people reduce food waste and single-use plastic. Beyond simple air-tight containers, its research and development team works to create products intended to extend the life of the food in your fridge. For example, CheeSmart helps preserve moisture in cheese, while FridgeSmart’s vent system controls airflow for longer produce storage.   "It's a holistic approach that we try to embrace all the way from when we design a product to how we produce a product and how we instruct people to use it," said Tupperware COO Bill Wright. "We are trying to make it have a bigger impact on people's lives and on the environment itself."   Tupperware’s sustainability initiative, No Time To Waste, commits to significantly reducing plastic and food waste by 2025. Through this effort, the company is investing in new materials such as circular polymers made from mixed plastic waste; a bid to eliminate single-use plastic packaging with the hopes of zero waste to landfills; reducing energy and water usage; and recycling 90 percent of its returned products. From a corporate social responsibility standpoint, the company supplies World Central Kitchen with products so that during disaster relief efforts, the nonprofit doesn’t need to rely on single-use plastics that usually end up in a landfill or the ocean.     "You have to kind of have to leap off that cliff when you're making the commitment," Wright said. "That’s what we’ve done."   In the supply chain that makes up the plastic industry, Tupperware is the face to consumers. It’s the one that has to cultivate a brand and market to an audience. It’s also the one that feels pressure from buyers to be more sustainable. As brands push for more sustainability to attract the more conscious consumer, their behind-the-scenes partners start to feel the heat.   Tupperware's partnership with SABIC to leverage its new circular polymer resin is an example of this downstream cooperation. SABIC isn’t a household name, so it doesn't have any consumer pressure to become more sustainable. In fact, even SABIC’s direct customers, the product manufactory facilities, aren’t demanding it. That push is coming from consumer brands such as Tupperware.   Taking that cue from its customers, SABIC decided there was a market for a more expensive plastic that is more sustainable. It created a circular polymer plastic resin by taking mixed plastic waste destined for the landfill and breaking it down, using a chemical process, to a virgin state. The circular polymer resin is then sent to the facilities that create new high-quality products, something traditional mechanical plastic recycling processes can’t recreate. Currently, Tupperware sells two products made out of the circular polymer material, a straw and a to-go coffee cup.   "Because there’s a limited amount of these resins available at this moment, we are asking where we can make the biggest impact," Wright said. "And it’s on these reusable products that are typically single-use. This is where we feel we can make a bigger impact, faster."   SABIC has its own sustainability goals, including using technologies that lower its carbon footprint, improving yield and energy efficiency and most importantly, focusing around developing resins with higher recycled content.   But to create resins and products with a higher percentage of recycled content, it will need to collect more plastic waste, a logistical challenge that has limited the evolution of recycling for decades. Solving the collection challenge in a way that makes economic sense to all stakeholders is the final link in a cooperation coalition that could make or break the future of the plastics industry.   According to Bob Maughon, CTO and CSO of SABIC, the company can’t directly address the collection and supply of plastic waste. Only through partnerships can it ensure it has the waste inputs it needs to achieve its sustainability goals and to expand its production capacity.   "We’re fully sold out on the [circular polymer] material that we have,” Maughon said. "The next facility that we’re building is already fully committed as well."   For now, SABIC works with waste collectors to ensure it gets the right amount of the right material, at the right cost to do the conversion.       Tupperware is starting to get into the waste collection game by developing an online warranty program to interact directly with customers and increase the percent of products that are returned to Tupperware. The goal is a 90 percent return rate without relying on independent collectors.   Rubbermaid, a Tupperware competitor, is also getting into direct recycling. Its new Food Storage Recycling Program is a partnership with TerraCycle to recover old glass and plastic food storage containers at no cost to customers.   But these types of products last a long time. Wright noted that food containers are sometimes passed down through generations.   The hope is a focus on waste collection by name brands could help boost the recycling percentages. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the recycling rate of plastic was just over 8 percent in 2017. PET bottles have better recycling metrics, with almost 30 percent heading to recycling centers, but most plastic still ends up in landfills.   Plastic circularity, especially waste collection, is both a business and a technical challenge. If Tupperware and SABIC want their circular polymers to change the plastic industry, then waste collection is the next chapter in the story that needs investment, innovation and cooperation.   "We are at the right spot to make it work," Maughon said. "The momentum is clearly there with the brands. The demand for the products from the consumers is there. That will justify the investment that we’re making today."

Whether you’re pressed for time or not all that creatively inclined in the kitchen, prepackaged backpacking meals and hiking snacks make for an appealing shortcut. From their protein bars to dehydrated dinners to filling breakfasts, trail-oriented food companies are innovating some pretty tasty grub. But for all their convenience and quality, much of what’s currently available leads to a heap of trash—running counter to many hikers’ desires to shrink their environmental footprints. Luckily, a handful of companies have made the switch to recyclable or compostable packaging, often after significant investment in product development. Here are five worth checking out. Fernweh Food Company borrows its name from a German word meaning “far-longing”—a sort of uber-wanderlust for far-flung places. Discouraged by trailhead trash, owner Ashley Lance started making from-scratch meals for her personal backpacking and bike-touring trips before turning her hobby into a business. Today, Fernweh customers can choose from two packaging options: a compostable bag or a reusable muslin bag. Those who opt for the latter can rehydrate grub inside a reusable silicone bag (included) or in their own pot or bowl. Fernweh’s dehydrated meals—which range from sweet potato breakfast bowls to mushroom pot pies to Southwestern stew—can be rehydrated inside the compostable bags. And Lance’s environmental commitment extends beyond packaging: She sells dehydrated food—lentils, vegetables, grains—in bulk, so buyers can further reduce their packaging, and sources seasonal produce from farms in the Pacific Northwest, where the company is based. Backpacker’s Pantry admits it’s still working on becoming more sustainable, but for now the company’s popular backpacker meals are a solid option for hikers seeking lower-impact backcountry fare. Backpacker’s Pantry uses responsibly sourced and organic ingredients when possible, and powers its facility with wind power (they’re adding solar power soon too), and contributes to a number of conservation nonprofits. Plus, Backpacker’s Pantry meal pouches can be recycled through a partnership with Terracycle—simply request mailer envelopes from Terracycle for free; each one can fit about 10 to 12 empty pouches. The program also lets customers send in meal pouches from other companies (you know, Backpacker’s Pantry’s competitors). The company is also working toward making its pouches entirely energy-neutral. Sun & Swell’s commitment to sustainability and social welfare seeps into every aspect of the company, from its ingredient sourcing to its packaging. A certified B Corporation and a member of 1% for the Planet, Sun & Swell sells whole foods like chia seeds, date syrup, and quinoa along with snacks like crisps and cookie bites. Each item is certified organic and certified vegan, and company reps claim that Sun & Swell does its best to work with small suppliers that share the company’s values and ethics. All products are packaged in either compostable or recyclable bags. (Sun & Swell recommends customers opt for industrial composting when they can, though the bags will decompose in a home compost pile too.) Its other packaging is #2 recyclable, though the bags’ film means they’re not curbside recyclable—they’ll have to be brought to a drop-off location like a municipal recycling center, or a retail store with a collection bin. Alter Eco is here to help you indulge your guilty pleasures without feeling too guilty about your impact. The B Corporation makes chocolate bars and truffles using fair trade, organic cacao grown by South American farmers who have also committed to rainforest replanting efforts. Flavor options include salted caramel truffles, dark salted brown butter chocolate, and grass-fed milk chocolate with salted almonds. Boxes containing Alter Eco’s trail-friendly bars and truffles are recyclable, and the individual truffle wrappers are compostable. The company also sells quinoa—perfect for rounding out backpacking meals—bagged in what it claims is the world’s first compostable stand-up pouch made from renewable, plant-based, non-GMO materials. LivBar founder Jan Johansen is also a practicing nutritionist, so her perfect-for-the-trail bars are packed with nutrition and low in allergens. Flavor combinations include blueberry vanilla kale, coffee maple cacao, raspberry kale maca, and vegan lemon ginger turmeric. Johansen bakes her bars in a facility powered by solar panels and packages each one in a compostable cellulose wrapper. The company is also certified organic through both the USDA and Oregon Tilth.

Now through August, CVS is teaming up with Gillette^®, TerraCycle^®and Fisher House to give you a chance to win a playground for a local military medical center. And all you have to do is send them your used shaving products – wrappers, those little plastic covers, the razors themselves, etc! It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3!   Follow the steps below!   See here for more details.

Visitors in Ocean City will notice something unique about four brand new benches in the resort community. The benches, three of which are located on the Boardwalk and the other at Seacrets, are made from recycled cigarette butts. The benches are the result of the Ocean City Green Team’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) which was created last year. The program encourages businesses, visitors, and residents to dispose of their cigarette butts and cigar tips properly, while aiming to reduce secondhand smoke.   “Littering cigarette butts and cigar tips is unsightly, costly to clean up, and harmful to waterways and wildlife,” commented Green Team chairman and Ocean City Councilmember Tony Deluca. “Not only are cigarettes the most picked up littered item on our beach in Ocean City but 32 percent of litter at storm drains is tobacco products. Litter traveling through storm drains and water systems, ends up in local streams, rivers, bays and the ocean. The Green Team’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, along with decades of coordinated beach clean-ups, aim to eliminate cigarette litter and these benches are a great result of our community’s efforts to keep our beaches clean.”   According to Keep America Beautiful (KAB), the nation’s largest organization aimed at eliminating cigarette litter and a co-funder of CLPP, cigarette butts remain the most littered item in the U.S. and across the globe. In addition to their contributions to the program, grant funding for the CLPP was provided by Worcester County Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).   In 2019, CLPP began a campaign where “butt huts” were made available to businesses willing to take a pledge of participation and assist with collecting cigarette waste throughout Ocean City. The huts were installed in highly trafficked areas that routinely saw concentrated cigarette waste. When full the huts were emptied by volunteers and interns and sent to international recycling leader TerraCycle, who recycled the cigarette butts and used the resulting plastic to manufacture the new benches.   “At TerraCycle, our mission has always been to eliminate waste, recycle the unrecyclable and use our innovative business solutions to minimize human impact on the planet,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “It’s through partnerships like the one we enjoy with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program that allow us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations.”   Maryland Coastal Bays Program (MCBP) is working with the Town of Ocean City to create a sustainable butt hut and recycling program to keep cigarette litter out of our waterways. KAB has awarded an additional $20,000 grant in funding that will assist with this as well as add additional messaging campaigns to both residents and visitor alike.  

For more information, visit https://oceancitymd.gov. Image: Town of Ocean City, MD

OCEAN CITY — A handful of benches made from recycled cigarette butts collected through an innovative program established last year are now in place around the resort area.   Last year, the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or Green Team, in cooperation with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, the Worcester County Health Department and the private sector, embarked on a Cigarette Litter Prevention Program (CLPP) aimed at reducing the tremendous amount of cigarette butt and other tobacco product waste littering the resort area. The program was developed by the MCBP and the Green Team after it was determined the majority of the little collected through the Adopt Your Beach and Adopt Your Street initiatives was comprised of cigarette butts.   As a result, the partners developed a cigarette Butt Hut program with receptacles installed in and around the resort area on public property and, to some degree, private sector businesses. Many of the butt huts were installed near the entry ramps to the Boardwalk, which saw an inordinate amount of cigarette butt littering.   Throughout the year, the butt huts were emptied and the cigarette butts were sent to recycling giant TerraCycle, which, in turn, converted the waste to a sustainable hard plastic. TerraCycle then used the plastic created from the recycled cigarette butts to create attractive, durable benches. Four of the benches have now been installed including three on the Boardwalk and one at Seacrets.   “Littering cigarette butts and cigar tips is unsightly, costly to clean up and harmful to waterways and wildlife,” said Ocean City Councilman and Green Team chair Tony DeLuca. “Not only are cigarettes the most picked-up littered item on our beach in Ocean City, but 32% of litter at storm drains is tobacco products. Litter traveling through storm drains and water systems ends up in local streams, rivers, bays and the ocean. The Green Team’s cigarette litter prevention program, along with decades of coordinated beach clean-ups, aims to eliminate cigarette butt litter and these benches are a great result of our community’s efforts to keep our beaches clean.”   According to Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest organization aimed at eliminating cigarette litter and co-founder of the CLPP, cigarette butts remain the most-littered item in the U.S. and around the world. In addition to the Keep America Beautiful contribution to the CLPP, grant funding for the local program was provided by the Worcester County Health Department and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For its part, TerraCyle was pleased to partner with the MCBP and the Green Team on the project.   “At TerraCycle, our mission has always been to eliminate waste, recycle the unrecyclable and use our innovative business solutions to minimize human impact on the planet,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “It’s through partnerships like the one we enjoy with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program that allow us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations.”   The MCBP is working with the town of Ocean City to create a sustainable butt hut and recycling program to keep cigarette little out of local waterways. Keep America Beautiful has awarded an additional $20,000 in grant funding to assist with that effort along with additional messaging campaigns for residents and visitors alike.

OCEAN CITY, Md.- Visitors to Ocean City will notice something different about four brand new benches in the resort town.   Maryland Coastal Bays Program said in a release that the benches, three of which are located on the Boardwalk and the other at Seacrets, are made from recycled cigarette butts.  The benches are the result of the Ocean City Green Team’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, which was created last year. The program encourages businesses, visitors, and residents to dispose of their cigarette butts and cigar tips properly, while aiming to reduce secondhand smoke.   “Littering cigarette butts and cigar tips is unsightly, costly to clean up, and harmful to waterways and wildlife,” said Green Team chairman and Ocean City Councilmember Tony Deluca. “Not only are cigarettes the most picked up littered item on our beach in Ocean City but 32 percent of litter at storm drains is tobacco products. Litter traveling through storm drains and water systems, ends up in local streams, rivers, bays and the ocean. The Green Team’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, along with decades of coordinated beach clean-ups, aim to eliminate cigarette litter and these benches are a great result of our community’s efforts to keep our beaches clean.”   According to Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s largest organization aimed at eliminating cigarette litter and a co-funder of CLPP, cigarette butts remain the most littered item in the U.S. and across the globe. In addition to their contributions to the program, grant funding for the CLPP was provided by Worcester County Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).   In 2019, CLPP began a campaign where “butt huts” were made available to businesses willing to take a pledge of participation and assist with collecting cigarette waste throughout Ocean City. The huts were installed in highly trafficked areas that routinely saw concentrated cigarette waste. When full the huts were emptied by volunteers and interns and sent to international recycling leader TerraCycle, who recycled the cigarette butts and used the resulting plastic to manufacture the new benches.   “At TerraCycle, our mission has always been to eliminate waste, recycle the unrecyclable and use our innovative business solutions to minimize human impact on the planet,” said TerraCycle CEO Tom Szaky. “It’s through partnerships like the one we enjoy with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program that allow us to fulfill our objective and help preserve the environment for future generations.”   Maryland Coastal Bays Program is working with the Town of Ocean City to create a sustainable butt hut and recycling program to keep cigarette litter out of our waterways. KAB has awarded an additional $20,000 grant in funding that will assist with this as well as add additional messaging campaigns to both residents and visitor alike.   For more information on the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, or the Ocean City Green Team’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program, contact Sandi Smith at sandis@mdcoastalbays.org.